The New Jersey governor was not only aware of the bridge closings that has resulted in a scandal for his administration but was responsible for them, according to the former transportation official who claims he has evidence to prove his allegations.

David Wildstein, who resigned from the Port Authority before news
broke that he was the one who personally oversaw the September
lane closing on George Washington bridge, was a high school
friend of Governor Chris Christie and was given his position with
Christie's blessing.

A letter released by Wildstein's lawyer to the New York Times
Friday now says the decision to shut down three lanes of the
busiest bridge in the US, which is under New Jersey's domain, was
“the Christie administration’s order.”

Earlier this month emails surfaced between Wildstein and
Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, saying
“time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” after the
mayor of that town did not endorse Christie's re-election
campaign.

The governor is seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2016
and has denied any knowledge of a retaliatory scheme. Now,
though, Wildstein claims that “evidence exists as well tying Mr.
Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the
period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor
stated publicly during a two-hour press conference,” in the
beginning of January.

“Mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements
that the governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy
of some,” said the letter from attorney Alan Zegas, as
quoted by the Times.

Christie's office issued a statement Friday in response to the
accusation, with the administration maintaining the governor
“had no indication that this was anything other than a
traffic study until he read otherwise on January 8. The Governor
denies Mr. Wildstein's other assertions.”

The closures that closed multiple lanes of onramp to the bridge
resulted in four days of heavy traffic in Fort Lee, New Jersey
from September 9 through September 13. Christie fired Bridget
Anne Kelly when the emails surfaced, saying he was
“blindsided” by the action of his aide and Wildstein.

The Fort Lee EMS department has said that it took emergency crews
one hour to wade through traffic and respond to four medical
calls on the first day of the traffic freeze. One woman, a
91-year-old, who laid unconscious waiting for EMS to treat her
cardiac arrest, later died. It is unknown if her life would have
been saved without the bridge closure.

Local political experts who have had a front row seat to
Christie's rise to the governorship have questioned his claims of
ignorance from the beginning. Barbara Buono, Christie's rival in
the gubernatorial election last fall, told the Daily Beast when
the emails first surfaced that the New Jersey heavyweight will
eventually be found responsible.

“This is a guy who runs a paramilitary operation,” she
told the Daily Beast. “His people don't sneeze without
checking with him first. But what I think was really the most
damning [revelation] was the cavalier attitude that these folks
had about subjecting children and the public to public safety
hazards. These are terrible, terrible people and their ringleader
is Chris Christie.”

Those expectations have yet to subside weeks later, with more and
more pundits wondering if this scandal will be a fatal blow to
Christie's presidential aspirations. Brigid Callahan Harrison, a
political science professor at Montclair State University, told
USA Today Friday's email was a “bombshell.”

“Most of us who have watched the governor over the past
several weeks anticipated this, given his demeanor has been
rather un-Christie-like,” she said.

Adding to the Governor’s spate of bad publicity, Hoboken Mayor
Dawn Zimmer accused the Christie administration this month of
having threatened to withhold relief funds in the aftermath of
Hurricane Sandy unless she supported a real estate development
complex proposed by a group favored by Christie.

Whether the latest accusation against Christie will prove to be
the bombshell many pundits had been expecting remained to be
seen.

Wildstein letter is NOT a "smoking gun." (That wld be the
actual evidence it promises). But it carries the strongest
whiff of gunpowder yet.